The writers stike...... (1 Viewer)

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geauxboy

geauxboy

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....has been hard on many regular folk around here. I am now hearing that most of the SNL krewe has been let go with no promise of a future re-hire. This is getting really silly now and many underpaid hard workers are feeling the brunt of this strike more than the high priced writers themselves.

So I was talking to a contact in the Conan O'Brien show last Monday and I was amazed. Not only was she still with the show, but there was an actual show in the first place. After talking to her for a few minutes, she said that Conan has been paying everyone's salary out of his own pocket this entire time during the strike.

I'm not trying to give the impression that I "know" Conan personally, but when I talk to him, he's always a very nice down to earth guy who's always actually interested in your day. Sure, he's an actor and can fake any emotion, but I don't get that from him. Now that I hear about him paying out of his own pocket, that solidified my thoughts on the guy as a person. I have yet to hear anyone else doing this.

That's all. I was just talking to someone else about getting him tix, and it made me remember how this is all going down. Really sad, IMO.

I see what the writers are trying to get and I actually do support it, but the expense is getting too high for the regular folks that aren't as fortunate as them.
 
I know Conan was a writer for SNL before he got his big break, so that's probably where his soft-spot comes from.
 
Meanwhile...

Report: Studios cancel writers contracts
Tue Jan 15, 4:45 AM PST

Four major studios have canceled dozens of writers' contracts in a possible concession that the current television season cannot be saved, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

The move means the 2-month old writers strike may also endanger next season's new shows, the Times said.

January is usually the beginning of pilot season, when networks order new scripted shows. But the strike leaves networks without a pool of comedy and drama scripts from which to choose.

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/article/urn:newsml:tv.ap.org:20080115:hollywood_labor
 
The writers are demanding a portion of profits from internet sales and the parent companies dont want to give it to them. I can certainly understand where the writers are coming from, especially considering the internet will soon displace broadcast television as the distribution medium. The networks need to just come to terms with the writers and give them a fair deal already, otherwise they are going to lose a lot more revenue than the writers contract demands would cost.
 
mister pc said:
The writers are demanding a portion of profits from internet sales and the parent companies dont want to give it to them. I can certainly understand where the writers are coming from, especially considering the internet will soon displace broadcast television as the distribution medium. The networks need to just come to terms with the writers and give them a fair deal already, otherwise they are going to lose a lot more revenue than the writers contract demands would cost.
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I agree the writers demands are fair but who do you think is going to cave first? Writers or the multiBILLION dollar companies they are fighting against. Hmmmmmmm....

On top of that the networks are actually pleased with this strike. Why? well lets let Bill Simmons explain:


"Actually, the studios have no incentive to settle until they have to start figuring out the summer movie schedule for 2009. Even though this was always the case, the WGA chose to strike in November and allowed the networks to extricate themselves from every bad development deal and half-assed pilot they had. Check out Alec Baldwin's recent piece on the Huffington Post. Hollywood LOVES this strike -- the execs are using it as an opportunity to completely re-invent the TV infrastructure. Imagine if the NBA had a chance to dump every bad player's contract, avoid paying any front-office employees, disband its five worst franchises with no repercussions and fix everything that's wrong about the league, and on top of that, they could get by on reruns, D-League games and documentaries for the next nine months without antagonizing their fans, getting crushed financially or suffering catastrophic dips in ratings or attendance. Would they do it? Of course, they would. Why didn't the WGA leaders see this in October when they were threatening to strike? I don't know.) "

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/links/080103
 
Geauxboy, maybe you can help me understand the dispute.

Do the individual writers get a cut of money from syndicated episodes of Raymond, Friends, the Office, etc. that come on 18 times a day on different local stations? If not, how is the internet different?
 
buzd said:
Do they have a parade?
Click to expand...

No. That's just inbreeding kickin in.:covri:

I'm very torn on this issue. I know I would want everything due to me for my services, but the price seems to be getting out of hand. I'm seeing many people that have been here for years that are getting let go and the whole thing is getting more and more somber.

NBC, the late comers to the "reality" tv bit, is jumping all over it now. I have seen some of the in-house feeds discussing this and they are not having a fun time. On the other hand, it's actually kinda fun watching the ad libbing that going on. I didn't know you could use um, uh, oh, er, and ah so often in a piece.:hihi:
 
Jonesy77 said:
Geauxboy, maybe you can help me understand the dispute.

Do the individual writers get a cut of money from syndicated episodes of Raymond, Friends, the Office, etc. that come on 18 times a day on different local stations? If not, how is the internet different?
Click to expand...

Yes, writers get a piece of syndication dollars.
 
Jonesy77 said:
Geauxboy, maybe you can help me understand the dispute.

Do the individual writers get a cut of money from syndicated episodes of Raymond, Friends, the Office, etc. that come on 18 times a day on different local stations? If not, how is the internet different?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I have heard so many different sides, I am not sure what's going on anymore. I don't think any of the regular folk know what's going on anymore. Most, if not all, the discussions I have heard have been about the internet. Not sure about the sydicated stuff. I haven't looked it up nor have I asked anyone because now isn't the time.
 
I've never seen much logic in this strike, of course I don't watch anything on tv but cartoons and sports so I don't really feel the effects of any of this.
 
Hoyasaint said:
I've never seen much logic in this strike, of course I don't watch anything on tv but cartoons and sports so I don't really feel the effects of any of this.
Click to expand...


I know Tina Fey's intitial interview while sporting the picket line didn't make a good case for the cause IMO. It went downhill from there.
 

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